Recovery School District liaison appointed by head of state Education Department

The head of the Louisiana Department of Education has assigned a member of his staff to help smooth the transition in leadership at the state's Recovery School District, which oversees most New Orleans schools.

View full sizeMichael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune archiveRecovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas is expected to leave his position to work in Chile and Haiti. He was photographed in September at a BESE meeting in Baton Rouge.

Patrick Dobard, who for nearly three years has represented the Louisiana Department of Education in front of the state legislature, will act as State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek's personal liaison to the RSD.

Dobard is not in the running to replace Paul Vallas as RSD superintendent, Pastorek said. "He's too important to me up in Baton Rouge."

The field of potential candidates to replace Vallas appears to have narrowed a bit just recently. Kelvin Adams, a former RSD administrator whom Vallas mentioned often as his choice to succeed him, signed a three-year contract extension last week that will keep him as superintendent in the St. Louis school district through June 2014.

Vallas is planning to leave his position by the end of the school year to work in Haiti and Chile, where he has already been helping to revamp the school systems following devastating earthquakes in both countries. Earlier this month, he signed a contract with the Inter-American Development Bank to begin overhauling some 2,000 low-performing schools in Chile while he is still at the helm in New Orleans.

Pastorek has been looking for a successor and has said he will likely announce his choice before April 25, when the regular state legislative session begins.

While Dobard will also continue in his role as the department's deputy director of governmental affairs, he will spend most of his time in New Orleans over the next few months, Pastorek said.

Pastorek announced the appointment in a letter to RSD employees, New Orleans charter school operators, the City Council, New Orleans' legislative delegation and the Orleans Parish School Board, which oversees 16 city schools. He told them to contact Dobard directly with any concerns "that cannot be worked out with Superintendent Vallas or RSD staff."

Dobard is a native of New Orleans with a bachelor's degree in secondary education and a master's in history from Southern University. He spent 11 years as a teacher before joining the state education department.